Blog marketing has obviously been used to the max these past years as the new age of marketing and it is not hard to depict why it has come into being. People seeking outside impromptu information surrounding various current events, issues and topics today in practically any area of interest has been something that has made corporations and individuals take notice of the benefits and fruits that online blogging can bring to their companies.

Blogging can be simply summed up as a collection of voices that simply want to speak out and share personal views and opinions at a different level. While some bloggers may offer some inconsistencies, it is not really the main purpose of having a blog up and about. Blogging is more inclined towards stirring conversations and discussions through a certain group of individuals who are aiming to emphasize points that include areas of business, technology and politics among a few.

Blog marketing depends on the blog quality content being used today. It is not about plain emphasis and repetition of keywords that are associated with the main topic that is up for discussion. The overall content and sensible content is still the interest that most readers will look into, using opinions from the content in blogs as the main agenda in reading them overall.

The beauty of blogging is that it has solicited the desire not only for people who love to express views but from the professionals who can share their insights as well. They have become professional sidelights to colorful careers, some even taking them to the extent of making a career out of it. A lot of bloggers have taken it towards the next level, which is commonly known today as problogging. It is the people who have fallen under this respect that have become the new breed of spreading pertinent information through quality content writing that is in demand today in most businesses and educational purposes.

Blogger jobs has been one good source of revenue and has helped hone up skills to be taken to a new level of emphasizing on aggressive marketing approaches employed by most large scale companies today. The sum of it all is the focus of strategic management direction for a company to be able to sustain and even work beyond what companies have already established as far as familiarity with their established customer base.

Bloggers are the new demanded telecommute jobs which was initially targeted for home based mothers or fathers. But taking it up close, if a person would really want to do something worthwhile, blogging for a cause towards something that most people do really specialize in is something that has grown into full time careers making it entirely convenient for bloggers and content writers that have considered such a venture profitable both in monetary and career gains.

To date, blog jobs are rampant over the web and people have made good living out of it. It all boils down to finding the right one and making them worth the while of most people who enjoy the additional workload. For strategic management goals to be achieved, it won’t take long before blogging, problogging, and blog marketing expertise will be the new offset of people who want to explore other opportunities for the sake of enhancing growing careers.

As part of strategic planning group in our company, my main concern is always the sustainability of the future! We spend sleepless nights trying to figure out how the market will behave in the next 5 to 10 years (a crazy thing to do if you ask me!). We even forecast the market size and business potential along the way. In short, we struggle to predict the FUTURE.

But even experts make wrong predictions from time to time. Sadly, we all predict the future based on our history and trending. While this may hold water, it limits our imagination in so many ways. We also tend to miscalculate the power of technology to alter perspectives and paradigm shifts.

Check out the most outrageous predictions I've read over the net:

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"There is no likehood man can ever tap the power of the atom." -- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee DeForest, Inventor of TV

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" -- Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

So be careful each time you make a prediction. Maybe 5 to 10 years from now you will also be here in this post =)

If you know any predictions on the future of blogging, please let me know.

Hey guys and gals I just need your help very badly. It's kinda simple, call me stupid if you like, but I really like to solicit your help on how to manage my categories.

I already created different Post categories - Strategy, Technology, etc. but every time I create a new post I cannot seem to use these Post categories i created. I followed the post called Creating and using categories but did not work.

Will Smith brings color to this amazing, fairy tale-ish, rags-to-riches struggle of Chris Gardner in his search for true "Happyness". The movie is but a glimpse of the real story and tribulations as a father, husband, employee, and more importantly as a Man.

It makes me wonder on the triumph of human spirit and the famous tag of Adidas - Impossible is Nothing.

I'm just wondering about the relevance of this inspiration in our society. I mean, do we have a Chris Gardner in this generation? How do we handle depression and failure in this digital age? Maybe blog is a good outlet but most people rely on Prozac and other CNS drugs to relieve stress and ease mental/emotional disorders. In fact, Zoloft and Prozac are the biggest brands worldwide!

Is the cliche "laughter is the best medicine" a thing of the past? Can we find creative inspiration naturally and explore the latency of being?

Nothing seems my best answer in all these questions. I think it is high time for all of us to wake and smell the roses. We might be livin and survivin in this desolate world but as long as we appreciate its beauty and tweak our perspectives, I'm pretty sure the world be a wee bit of a better place.

I guess the answer, as Mr. Bob Dylan adequately put, is blowin in the wind

To those who are quite curious to know more about the source of the "pursuit of happyness", take time to read paragraph below from the Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted https://www.msfunding.com among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Perhaps the biggest debate over the domain names is the rejection of the domain name .XXX by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).

The decision by the the US-based non-profit body that runs the domain name system to reject proposals for .xxx could have wide-reaching repercussions for how the internet is run, writes internet law professor Michael Geist.

The Internet world is filled with .com, .net, .org, that is why I firmly believe in the marketing logic and brilliance behind these .xxx porn domain names (makes it easier for us to surf porn, too). In the case of marketing, it is a good form of market segmentation - porn domain names for porn sites. Let's leave the .coms and .orgs to the public.

I vote in favor because:
1. easier to search porn and Paris Hilton over the net! (did I mention this already?)
2. better control for parents and more protection for children
3.better business and heightens competition (good thing I'm not in porn business! must be exciting though)
4. a way to clean up clutter over the Internet

Internet experts ares now divided in this relentless debate, with so many issues cropping up from different perspectives.

In the same manner .edu was developed for educational institution, why is it different for sex and pornography?

The tie-up between AT&T and Napster is one hell of a strategy! Save $180 in subscription fee to Napster To Go and download more than 3 million song tracks starting April 1. This program is valid for one year only!

It's amazing how convergence and hypercompetition alter our daily survival in this digital age! The best part? We, consumers, are the winners! Always!

Strike up the band. AT&T Inc. and Napster today announced a new offer that gives customers free unlimited access for one year to more than 3 million song tracks through Napster To Go(R) -- a $180 value -- allowing consumers to customize playlists on their PC and seamlessly transfer favorite tunes to compatible wireless phones and music devices.

If you are not a customer of AT&T, don't feel bad..competition will almost always follow suit! Just patience my friend!

Hmmm...what will be the next freebie?

For complete news, visit TMCnet's article, AT&T Teams Up With Napster, Delivers Access To 3 Million Song Tracks Across Multiple Screens, Devices

In the battle to converge mobile technology with home entertainment, CBS TV has agreed to air their television shows through wireless company, Sprint. The deal incudes episodes from Jericho, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, The Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, The Late Show with David Letterman, Entertainment Tonight, and The Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

The sad part is it is NOT free! Subscribers still have to pay $1.99 per viewing. Worst: the movie is good only for 24 hours unlike movie downloads from torrents and other P2P sites.

Expect other companies to make our world smaller and keep all entertainment within reach!

Isn't it amazing that some of the best strategies and business pointers can be summarized in a simple quote? The ability to integrate all important concepts and put it in simple terms is what we all should do to make lives easier in this digital age.

So, I will not be writing about my sentiments or business insights I learned today. Rather, I will let you internalize these powerful and inspiring business quotes lifted from FastCompany.

"It's rare that you find a way to combine your profession with your avocation." - Stephen Oesterle, Senior VP, Medtronic

"If you want to make something pop, you have to do it through something fun." - Rafi Haladjian, cofounder, Violet

Many gadget users put premium towards the warranty that comes along with their laptop, mobile phone or PDA since no one will know when they would suddenly break down. Warranty provides a sense of security for gadget purchasers for the reason that they only want to be assured that they have a means of being able to exchange defective units in cases where faulty production and manufacturing may suddenly fall into their hands.

Paengski Playing with his Gameboy

Electronics is a risky merchandise to purchase without any means of replacement within a given warranty period. The chances of landing defective units may not be that high, but just the same, people would do well to be sure about their purchases for value of money. With a vast production line to satisfy the demands for technological enhanced gizmos and gadgets, probabilities of defective merchandise will always be a possibility in any manufacturing concern.

The list goes on as to what categories would fall under this area. Portable media, mobile computers, plasma television, LCD television, home theaters and other forms of technology breakthroughs are sure buys for the people who put premium in technology advancements. Hence the need to safeguard the vested interest of most consumers is a must if reliability is something to be measured for brand loyalty and awareness later on.

"Disruption theory says that products or services evolve incrementally to better meet the needs of the most demanding customers, but eventually overshoot the needs of most consumers."

Overdrive! It reminded me of a saying that even genius may have its limitations. The same principle applies in crafting our strategies and relentless attacks in the market. The newest case of overdrive now threatens Starbucks and the great coffee experience.

According to news articles, Starbucks Founder and CEO Howard Schultz has sent a memo to all board members expressing his apprehensions with regard to the future of heart-warming Starbucks Experience.

Cited from Starbucks Gossip

Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand...

...we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista.

...we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated.

...Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others.

A Latte of Lessons
The relentless quest for innovation and process improvements will definitely help maximize returns on investments and increase profit margins. However, the same strength will turn out to be our major weakness if we overextend our reach.

The potentially disastrous downside is a classic case of marketing myopia or shortsightedness. Perhaps the Starbucks team was very absorbed with maximizing profits and became overtly eager to please it customers Diecipro with new products. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I believe every business takes these strategies one way or the other.

What they miserably failed to see is the diminishing emotional prowess of Starbucks coffee experience built for many years. In the words of Mr. Schultz, they lost the “romance and theatre”. They are no longer reacting to the growing needs of coffee aficionados, they have gone beyond to a point that they are invading other turfs and creating more competitors like McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts.

Moreover, they will lose authenticity, dampen their image, and eventually destroy the ambient social setting often referred as the “third place”.

Maybe it's high time for Starbucks board members and officers to take a step back, re-examine the big picture, and develop a long-term strategic plan to preserve its uniqueness. Hey, coffee might help!